How many B29's are left?

It seems the long term future of the B50 Lucky Lady 2 is not 100% secure as she has now been moved into the bone yard at chino as the job of using a stratotankers wings and engines on her has proved too expensive apparently.

This was from a museum member of staff who did not want to discuss her when i asked, i dont know if she belongs to planes of fame or is a USAFM loan.

Either way she is an historic airframe that needs better attention, i last saw her at the museum about 4 years ago but the museum has had a face lift (for the better) and must not have had room in the parking lot for her anymore.

curlyboy

We used to have the B-29 ‘T square 54’ here in Colorado at the Lowry museum….somehow, when the museum moved indoors to the old hangars (and is now a first class facility) the B-29 got away from us and moved up to the Pacific Northwest, with whom I have no idea, but hopefully they’re restoring it to high standards like we would have done if we’d have retained her…

Mark

There was one very important thing learned from the recovery effort of KeeBird:
When you’re running the APU in the **** end do NOT suspend the gas tank directly over it from a coat hangar when taxiing over rough ice……….PHWOOOF….

Related!

Because it’s the time to remember! 🙂 .

A after doing the whole thread 😮 , I must say!

It’s a fair dinkem blooody Ripper!! 😀 😉

It deserve’s to be looked at again, make’s sence to me this time of the year

For the guy’s who flew the 29, and finished that long war, that cost so much!.

Thank you.

We Remember.

For those who missed this thread, and are new, and like me have a thing for 29.

Please Enjoy.

There’s a lot of great info here to be absorbed

To the 29, I salute you old girl :dev2: .

Ciao, I must crash now, ” Gut Nacht ” all 😉

Thank’s Rob.

It’s my Webshots photos. The link below should direct you to the main page for my Barksdale AFB photos. Their B-29 is pictured there,among others.

http://community.webshots.com/album/167077684VNKvYL

Little red x box again here Rob!.

What’s in it?

Here’s serial number 487627 at Barksdale AFB in Bossier City, Louisiana.

Richard,

There’s an article in August’s ‘Flight Journal’ with an article by Charles Don Albury; on the atomic bomb missions. He mentions ‘The Great Artiste’ and ‘Big Stink’ as the acompanying measuring B-29s, not ‘Over Exposed’. Interesting article. Worth getting.
Cheers

60 year’s today!!!

Remember THE little BUMP in the rail line :rolleyes: .

Anyway Here’s to Major Sweeney and his Crew, NOT forgetting the old girl Bock’s Car 😉 .

YOU ALL DID IT, ENDING SIX YEAR’S OF WAR, 60 year’s ago today,

Well done Lad’s 😉 .

It had to be done!

Get real !! Do you think that the Soviet engineers were so stupid as to ‘build-in’ the bullet holes – just because they were afraid of Stalin ????

Carm down!

One of the engineers who made the copy said that’s exactly what happened – and as he’s a primary source………

The “capture” and reverse engineering was covered in a two part documentary that I saw on satelite a few months back. They had to make some changes as they couldn’t get the metal in imperial thicknesses so they went to metric and some panels are thicker in certain areas and others thinner.
OAW

The Tupolev Tu-4 (NATO ‘Bull’) was NOT a direct copy of the B-29 – bullet holes and all.

Get real !! Do you think that the Soviet engineers were so stupid as to ‘build-in’ the bullet holes – just because they were afraid of Stalin ????

Tupolev was against the project from the very start – he had his own rival designs, but Stalin insisted for the sake of speed.

First the had to disassembly it – piece-by-piece.
Then they had to completely re-draw it – converting to metric measurements.
Then build it.

The engines were Shvetsov ASh-73TK’s and the defensive armament was first 20mm and later 23mm cannon – so there goes the ‘exact copy’ straight away.

The Tu-4 was also lighter and few higher than the B-29.

A few other things to consider when churning out the ‘goddam commies copied the B-29 exactly’ argument.

At the time, the Soviets were our allies – and had been asking for B-29’s for some time – but were refused.

They had a non-aggression pact with the Japanese – which allowed them to move troops to the west – thereby helping the allied cause.

Under the terms of the Soviet-Japanese agreement, the Soviets were obliged to inter any US aircraft AND CREW that landed on Soviet soil.

They obliged the Japanese by interring the B-29’s – but ‘allowed’ the crews to ‘escape’ to Iran.

The reverse-engineering of an aircraft as complex as a B-29 was no mean feat – and something that the west thought to be impossible.

Imagine the surprise on the western air attaches’ faces as they watched three Tu-4’s fly past at the 1947 Tushino air display !!!

Take a read of Yefim Gordon’s ‘Tuploev Tu-4 – Soviet Supertfortress’ – ISBN 1-85780-142-3

As for the ‘being afraid of Stalin’ legend – how about the US officials who were ‘so afraid’ of Lyndon Johnson that they dare not contradict him when he mis-identified the RS-71 as the ‘SR-71’.

The stories are both as ludicrous as each other – but we all know that the Soviets are stupid – don’t we ???

Ken

Thanks Rochard, most interesting. And if you like B-29s here’s a unique angle on the design:

Shadow

“Over Exposed” was an F-13A photographic B-29, I think the serial was 44-61999. She was on one of the missions, I don’t think it was a combat mission, just a test, which involved filming the explosion and then flying through the mushroom cloud and taking samples.

If you get up to the wreck (photos don’t do it justice, the site covers an area the size of a couple of tennis courts) there is the remains of the starboard wing, which still carries yellow markings for Operation Crossroads.

Technically it’s not on Bleaklow (there’s a Blenheim, and a Defiant up there though) the B-29 is on Higher Shelf Stones. It takes about 45mins to get to it from the A57 Snake Pass if you know exactly where it is.

Have found out that the B-29 that crashed on Bleaklow Hill in the Peak District was called ‘Over Exposed’. Can anyone confirm that this was one of the aircraft connected with the Japanese atomic bomb attacks as an observation plane. Their are some interesting pictures of the wreck on various sites via google.
Have noticed another B-29 crash site in Scotland.

WOW, thank’s JDK,

I got here after this one, MOST interesting stuff I must say.

Must bring it back to complement the other B-29 thread.

Just love that silver Cigar!!!

B29 WW354

The RAF had some Squadrons of B-29s in the 50s, they were called WASHINGTONS. Also I think the Aussies had some and there is one in the Duxford Museum.

Sorry to be a bit slow on the uptake.

I have two pictures of WW354 on the ground at Hurn in 1952; I’ll post them on the “pics from 1952…” thread in due course.

Lots of info and access to Chris Howlett’s excellent “Washington Times” series at http://www.rafwatton.info/subjs/wash/wash1.html

That reminds me of the licence-built Westland Whirlwind helicopters that were 5% heavier than Sikorsky’s, to some extent because British sheet metal was thicker than American!

Also the Westland helicopters, unlike Sikorky built machines, had their cabin windows held in place by big rubber gaskets, rather like old cars. Anyone know why the change?

That reminds me of the licence-built Westland Whirlwind helicopters that were 5% heavier than Sikorsky’s, to some extent because British sheet metal was thicker than American!
I beg your indulgence for mentioning egg-beaters in this Forum!

The “capture” and reverse engineering was covered in a two part documentary that I saw on satelite a few months back. They had to make some changes as they couldn’t get the metal in imperial thicknesses so they went to metric and some panels are thicker in certain areas and others thinner.
OAW